


survivor

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst? This is gonna be another sad one lol, death clips, somewhat creepy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 01:10:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8308006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: What would you do if you could see others' deaths before they come to pass?





	1. death clip

When Hinata Shouyou heard the bell chime, he put his pencil down with a sigh of relief, and put his head in his hands. All that occupied his brain was a swirling vortex of numbers and letters, mocking him; decidedly, he hated tests, and he hated maths, and he hated maths tests most of all. Once the papers had been collected in and he’d gotten chance to recover from his confusion, he leant back in his chair; it seemed like others were doing the same, trying to relieve themselves of the exam stress by chatting amongst themselves.

Drawing his attention away from the strangers was the sound of the door sliding open, as a fellow student entered his exam room with a grin on his face. “Yo!” was the enthusiastic greeting. “How was stuff in here? I didn’t know anybody in my room!” Nishinoya Yuu grinned widely, rubbing the back of his head. “So, how was that exam, huh?” he smacked Hinata on the back.

“Ouch,” he grumbled, but answered anyway: “It was okay, I guess…”

“Pff, which means you’re done six ways until Sunday!” Noya sniggered.

“Like you’ve done much better!” Hinata retorted.

“Yeah, well,” Noya shrugged. “You don’t see _me_ complaining.”

Once again the door opened – standing there was a proctor, who seemed to be looking for someone, if the way his eyes scanned the room were anything to go by. “Nishinoya? Nishinoya Yuu? Oh, there you are!” he called over when Noya spun around, clearly confused. “You forgot your things!”

“Oh, crap! I forgot about all my stuff!” With that, Noya sprinted to the entrance to collect his forgotten belongings, and Hinata could only shake his head in mock disappointment.

“You left your exam slip and your phone at your seat. I was looking everywhere for you!” the proctor scolded his friend sternly, who was clearly abashed by the situation.

“I’m sorry about that,” Noya said. “Thanks!” Once he returned to Hinata’s desk, he let out an over-exaggerated sigh. “That was close, huh? My mom would have definitely chewed me out later.” He trailed off, staring at his phone – and then his eyes lit up, like he’d just had the best idea of his life. “Oh, yeah! There’s something I wanted to show you! Wanna see? Huh? Huh?”

“Yeah!” Hinata grinned up at him. “What is it? Is it something Tanaka showed you?”

“You bet!” Noya held out a hand. “I totally knew you’d wanna see. Gimme your phone.” Hinata complied, hesitantly, and Noya immediately began tapping incredibly fast on the screen.

“So, what are you doing?” Hinata ventured after a while.

“Unlimited access to gay porn,” Noya replied nonchalantly.

“Give it back!”

Hinata lunged for it, but Noya laughed in his face. “I’m just kidding, man! It’s some type of weird sight everyone’s hyping over. I’m just sending you the link – you get bonuses if you invite friends, so I figured why not.”

“Weird site…?” Hinata repeated; in reply, his phone was returned into his hands. On the screen the word _eizonoshi_ was displayed, yet that didn’t explain a lot to Hinata, and he looked at Nishinoya in confusion.

“Cool, huh?” his friend simply urged, and then relaxed. “Hey, haven’t you heard of this thing yet?” Hinata shook his head, still a tad confused, yet from the website or from the remnants of the maths test he had no idea. “It’s that _images of death_ website that’s been catching on lately.”

“Images of death?” Hinata repeated, feeling slightly afraid.

“You don’t know?!” he sounded flabbergasted. “Sign up for this thing and you get to see a video if one of your friends is about to die!”

“That’s… spooky…” he shivered, and Noya grinned mischievously.

Immediately, he put on a dramatic voice, and spoke again: “Did you hear about the boy in one of the first year classes? I forget his name… a friend of his signed up for this saw it happen. The creepiest thing is…” he leant in and whispered into Hinata’s ear, “…he saw the video before the accident happened.” With a shriek, Hinata leapt back off his chair, and Noya guffawed. “You should totally give it a try! You just need to enter your name to get started.”

Expectantly, he peered down at Hinata, who swallowed down his fear and nodded. “Okay! I’m n-not scared!”

“You sure?”

“Yes, of course I am!” Cautiously, he typed in his name, symbol by symbol, with Noya staring down at him, as if anticipating the moment he gave into his fright. When he’d completed that, a chibi-style crow appeared on screen, flapping its wings in an attempt to stay on screen.

“Hello, Shouyou!” it chirped happily. “I’ve been waiting for you!” Despite the creepiness Noya had given it, the site seemed innocent at a glance. Maybe he’d just been leading him on. “Welcome to Eizonoshi! This is your home for death videos. Hey, that’s pretty scary, but don’t worry, I’ll look after you! My name’s Karasu, and I’ll be your manager! I’m really happy to meet you, Shouyou!” Disbelieving, Hinata looked at the eager Yuu with an arched eyebrow; something about Karasu was odd, it had to be said. “On this website, we’ll show you how all of the people you’re friends with die by a movie clip! Don’t worry, I’ll tell you when new videos are uploaded though, so please wait until then! Now then… have a nice day!” With the cheery cry, the little crow flapped unsteadily off-screen, with Hinata staring dumbly after it.

“Amazing, huh?” Yuu urged him. “Your mind blown or what?!”

“It’s… scary, I guess?” This was almost as confusing as his maths test; he couldn’t be scared of a cute crow!

“Come on, man, have a bit of fun!” Noya punched his arm in jest. “I signed up yesterday, and I haven’t seen anything yet. I hope we see something soon, you know?”

“That would mean of our friends is dying!” Hinata snapped, shocked and appalled.

“Nah, this thing ain’t real!” Noya shook his head. “Don’t tell me you actually believe this stuff, Hinata.”

“Of course I don’t!”

“Liar,” Noya pushed himself off of his desk. “Anyways, do you have any afternoon exams?”

Hinata shook his head. He couldn’t take much more than that maths exam.

“Then, let’s head to Shibuya,” Noya shrugged. “There’s a store Ryuu told me to check out.”

“Sure!” Hinata agreed, desperate to be rid of his exam room, which was beginning to feel stuffier by the second.

“Awesome, let’s go!”

As usual, the city of Tokyo was a glistening metropolis, filled with people and noises and smells that were still exciting to Hinata, even after ten years of living in the city. If it existed, then it definitely was in Tokyo – over the years cultures from all over the world left its mark on fashion and food, and made themselves part of the city’s identity; it was a place where everyone from all walks of life were welcomed. To Hinata, it was home. At the centre of this tiny magical world was Shibuya, the leader of the city’s – maybe even the entire country’s – fashion industry. If it was in Shibuya, then it was in style. Though Noya would never admit it, he was somewhat fashion conscious, and he dragged the hapless Hinata through various departments of the 109, the glimmering beacon of Shibuya. Finally, the two flopped in a café, tired out from the afternoon’s shopping.

“Man, oh, man,” Noya was saying, waving his hand around in front of his face, “we bought a load of stuff!”

“We?” Hinata grumbled.

“Okay, okay, so it was mostly me,” he grinned at the smaller boy, “but you didn’t have to point it out, ya know!” he flopped on the table dramatically, but perked up a second later. “Did you see the t-shirt I got though? I got my license last week, so I’ll be wearing that when I go on drives.”

“You got your license?”

“Sure did!”

“Can I come with you?”

“Nah, you’re not pretty enough,” Noya grinned, and laughed at Hinata’s pouty expression. “I’m kidding, of course you can. Though we do have to pass entrance exams before we can think about all that. Man… do you think you’ll pass?”

“Ugh…” Hinata groaned. “I don’t want to think about it. I mean, what do I do after exams? Well, I mean, I know I’ll probably go to college, and then I’ll graduate eventually, and then…”

“Find a nice job?” Noya shrugged.

“Jobs are for suckers,” Hinata said decidedly.

“I know what you mean,” he sighed. “It’s not gonna be easy finding something I actually enjoy.”

“I wish I could be a professional volleyball player,” Hinata mumbled again.

“Me too. But when I look at guys like that Ushijma guy, we don’t stand a chance!”

“I’m not gonna stop trying,” Hinata announced with determination.

“Me either! I can’t just accept I’ve lost to Ushijima without a fight!” Noya punched the air energetically. “We may be completely average, but there’s no need to feel sad over it!” He stretched. “C’mon, let’s go home.”

They stood up from their table, and paid the woman the counter for their drinks, before making their way to the Hanzoman line subway station. Somehow, Nishinoya had a bundle of energy left, and for whatever reason, as did Hinata; it was nearly impossible for those two to get tired, much to the chagrin of their friends. On the way, they steered clear of any depressing topics, like exams, or college, or the future.

As they took their position on the platform, Noya was chatting about some game he and Tanaka were playing nowadays; as always, Hinata listened eagerly. Since he had a large family, Hinata never got the game consoles his friends had – they never had enough money, and even if they did, one of his brothers or sisters would have stolen it before he’d even had the chance to play it. “Do you think the next one in the series is out ye-” Noya broke off, his eyes travelling further down the platform, something having caught his eye. “Hmm?!” he sounded kind of breathless, and had started bouncing slightly, which he was wont to do when he was excited.

“What’s up, what’s up?” Hinata crowded close to him, and followed his friend’s gaze to a girl with bobbed hair. “Hey, that’s Yachi, right? Yachi Hitoka, right? In Class C!”

“Yeah, yeah!” Noya nodded. “The smart, cute, gentle, innocent, uh… modest…”

“Are you just listing all the adjectives you know?” Hinata asked him, earning another sock on the arm.

“Whatever, man!” Noya grinned. “But, yeah, she’s really something. I know a load of people really look up to her, you know?”

“Of course they do, she’s cute,” Hinata said. Fortunately, he was one of the lucky few who’d spoken to her and had the good fortune to even be called her friend, since she was the manager of their volleyball team. From afar, he really admired Yachi and valued the encouragement she gave them all.

“I’m sayin’,” Noya elbowed him in the ribs.

Whilst they’d been chatting and mumbling between themselves, neither had realised the girl in question approaching them. “Um… excuse me?” came the quiet voice.

“Oh! Hey! Yachi!” the team’s libero greeted her enthusiastically. “Fancy seeing you here!”

“I’m glad I bumped into you two,” she said, small smile on her face. “I was kind of scared! What if I missed the train, what if I fell asleep…” she began to list off a series of worries on her fingers, and Hinata and Noya laughed along and shook their heads and comforted her best they could have done. “And the exam!” she exclaimed, upset as well. “That was so difficult. I wasn’t sure if anyone will still be there, so I was scared. Uh…” she trailed off, clearly leaving a question in the air. Hinata, who’d been blessed to study sessions with her (though most of it had been spent admiring her stationary collections), knew what she wanted to say.

“Don’t worry, Yachi! You’ll get questions later, promise!”

“Huh…?” for a few seconds, she blinked at him, and then her face split into a happy smile. “That’s amazing, Hinata! How did you know I wanted the sample questions?” Hinata shrugged, playing it cool, barely aware of Nishinoya glowering at him from his right. “But yeah, we should be able to get the sample questions if we ask at school, right?” Hinata nodded and grinned at her, and she grinned back, breathing a brief sigh of relief. “Thanks, I was actually beginning to worry there. I didn’t mean to bother you, sorry…”

“It’s no bother at all!” Noya said quickly, but an awkward silence had descended. “Uh, uh, Yachi, well…” for a few seconds, he struggled with his words, clearly wanting to continue the conversation, yet having no idea what to say. Just as it things were descending into the realm of awkwardness, there was a cheery beep from all three of their phones simultaneously, making all three of them nearly jump out of their skins, before they pulled their cell phones out.

“Woah, that was freaky!” Hinata exclaimed. “What do you think it was?”

“It’s obvious, dummy!” Noya socked him on the arm. “It’s from Eizonoshi. Think it’s a death clip?” Instead of staring at his phone, Hinata stared at Yachi, who seemed somewhat effected by the notification, and was mumbling to herself.

“What is this…? It’s creepy…” she had begun to bite her thumb nail.

“Hey, it’s you,” Nishinoya said, gulping. “This is you, right? I’d recognize your ginger hair anywhere.”

At the image Noya flashed him, Hinata wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Ugh, gross…” Looking down at his own phone, he was greeted enthusiastically by Karasu.

“Hello, Shouyou! You have a death clip! This is soooo exciting!” the cartoon bird chirped. “Do you wanna watch it now?” When the options box popped up, he pressed yes, even though uncertainty was eating at his mind.

Immediately the video began, panning out to a subway station – eerily like Hanzomon, Hinata noted with a shiver running down his spine – where a subway train had crashed, the normally shiny and polished metal all scratched and distorted beyond recognition; parts of the platform had come away in chunks where the train had slammed into it. As it panned, there were flashes of the moment before this occurrence – the train lights too bright as they approaching, the screeching of brakes as it attempted to slow down to little affect, a second where he could have sworn he saw himself, Noya and Yachi staring with wide eyes at something. Finally, the clip ended with blood pouring down his forehead, and the camera stopped, just enough to let him see his own body underneath the train.

Normally, he would have yelped in surprise, but he didn’t even have it in him to do that. In his shock, he couldn’t move, and Noya seemed pretty horrified too; Yachi had clapped a hand to her mouth. Out of all of them, Yuu was the first to recover with an easy-breezy smile, as though he couldn’t care less. “Pretty slick, huh? What did I tell you, Hinata?” he elbowed the ginger boy in the ribs.

“Yeah,” Hinata tried his hardest to be upbeat. “Since it had a chibi bird on it, I thought it would be a lot more chintzy-looking.”

“Nishinoya, you’re in this too,” Yachi said, pointing to an obscure figure on her screen.

“Huh,” said Nishinoya. “Well, it’s way elaborate, but it’s not like it’s real.” He was cut off by the sound of the announcement for the next train, and he tilted a head to listen. “Oh, train’s here! Let’s-” He never got to finish his sentence, as the ground underneath them began to shake uncontrollably, and from afar were some awfully loud noises… almost like the sound of screaming brakes. “Woah, what –”

“Is this an earthquake?!” Hinata yelled.

“What do we do?!” Yachi squeaked, reaching for Hinata’s arm to steady herself as she lost her footing.

“Run!” Hinata boomed at the top his lungs, and the three spun and tried to run further away from the source of the problem. “It’s like the video! Run, run!”

“The train!” Noya shouted, looking over his shoulder. “Guys, get down!” From all over the platform, people were beginning to scream and wail and fall over, parts of the tunnel itself beginning to fall in, scattering debris. All over, people were rushing around, trying to escape and save themselves, not caring for other people at all. In the panic, Hinata found himself sprawled on the ground, unfortunately bringing Yachi with him. Noya crouched down in an attempt to hoist the both of them to their feet but failed due to the unsteadiness of the ground. Inevitably, sparks flew from the brakes as the driver attempted to stop the haywire vehicle, but the damage had been done – the train derailed, and plummeted into the platform, tottering dangerously above Hinata’s head. All he could do was stare in wide-eyed horror as the carriage came crashing down.


	2. second chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the aftermath of the earthquake is severe.

“Hey, Shouyou! Hey, hey!” The first thing that registered was the tinny voice of that creepy cartoon crow, Karasu. “Hey, Shoyou, can you hear me? _Shoouyouuu_!”  When Hinata remained silent, there was an irritated huff. “I know you can hear me! You could die, you know!” Through blurred eyes, Hinata glanced upwards at the lit screen of his phone, where Karasu was prancing about, if in a panic. Everything else was as dark as night, and he could barely see beyond his screen. “But if you’d like, I could give you another chance! So, do you wanna live?”

Reaching out a hand, Hinata grasped his phone and held it in front of his face, squinting his eyes at the glare. On the screen was a patient Karasu, hovering over two options: _live_ or _die_. Without thinking too much about it, Hinata pressed live, and Karasu chirped happily.

“Alright, alright! You’ve got a really strong will to live, Shouyou! Good for you, good for you!” the bird seemed to dance on the screen, as fluidly as the real thing. “Now, good luck, okay?”

As quickly as it had come on, the screen switched off, leaving Hinata dazed and confused. Did Karasu say demon? What? Before he could even start to register what was happening, his eyes were opening to the ruined station; sparks flying from a severed cable were his only source of light. In horror, he turned around, surrounded by debris; he had been shielded by a fallen pillar – or so it seemed. Though it wasn’t exactly clear, he could see human-like shapes under parts of the debris and in the shadow of the train. He didn’t like to think about it.

“But… everything was normal just a minute ago,” he muttered to himself, not liking the oppressive silence. However, as if in response, there was the noise of rocks tumbling over one another, as something or someone pushed their way out of a pile of rubble. With a groan, Nishinoya Yuu sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “Noya!” In confusion, Noya turned to face Hinata, blinking slowly as he did so. Only once his thoughts had caught up to what he was seeing did Noya do a double take, and stare around in shock, and like a marionette with cut strings, he stood up, surveying the damage.

“What is… all of this?”

“Hey, Noya, you’re bleeding!” Hinata steadied his friend. “Are you alright?!”

“Uh… yeah, sure,” Noya said, putting a hand to the cut on his forehead. “No biggie.” Hinata nodded, and steadily but surely, they began to make their way down to the platform. “We should call for help,” Noya suggested.

“Oh, right,” Hinata nodded, and pulled out his phone, but before he could dial the number, his eyes wandered to find a moving pile of debris, almost like Nishinoya’s had been, and the dull glare of a phone screen. “There’s a survivor!” He leant Nishinoya against a still-standing pillar to help him gather himself, and slid down to the pile. Emerging head-first was Yachi, who looked dazed, but most of all grateful to be alive. “Yachi!”

At the cry, she looked up, and her face split into a happy smile; a second later, the tears came, and she threw herself at Hinata, sobbing all the while. Noya stood by them, and asked: “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I am,” she sniffled, rubbing her face with the back of her hand. “What about you two?”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Hinata smiled assuredly.        

“Same here, just a little banged up,” Noya pointed to the scar on his head with a hint of pride; the grin on his face melted a second later. “But…”

“This is horrible,” Yachi muttered sadly to herself, hugging her own chest, and looking down at her scuffed shoes. Even Hinata dropped his eyes, finally realising the full extent of the crash. How many men, women and children were in here…? Were they the only survivors? Three, out of so many?

“Is this because of the death clip?” Noya spoke up, traipsing closer to the destroyed train carriage. “We all saw, it didn’t we? The video. And then, there was that earthquake… dammit!”

“This is bad, really bad!” Hinata agreed, balling his fists. “If people are actually dying, like how we saw in the video…”

“I’m scared,” Yachi started to cry again, her voice thick and wet. “Can we get out of here?”

At the sound of her voice, Hinata swallowed his fear; he had to be strong, for her sake at the very least. “Yeah, we should go onto the street level. It’s way dangerous here.”

Outside, things appeared far worse than they were on the subway platform; shadows cast by searing fires danced across smashed-up cars, splintered buildings and ruptured roads. The charred cityscape was strewn with leaning buildings like broken teeth in a burnt jawbone; something deep inside Hinata’s chest broke, like glass being carelessly crushed underfoot. Here and there, plumes of dark smoke reached into the sky like the fingers of a dying man reaching for salvation. Fortunately, there seemed to be areas that didn’t seem to be burned, at least not completely. Whatever image of Tokyo Hinata once had in his brain – a conglomeration of mega skyscrapers, standing tall into the sky, surrounded by a hazy ring of smaller shimmering structures reaching into the low clouds, hard to see clearly – it had gone. Destroyed as soon as he stepped out from the platform.

In a daze, Noya stepped out. “Haha… no way…” he laughed mirthlessly, staring up at the sound of tinkling glass as a window smashed nearby. “The city’s completely in ruins… was this really just a quake, man?”

Around them, confused and scared people at started gathering at the intersection, which was now destroyed beyond all recognition. Yachi followed their gazes, and pointed upwards. “Look at the display!”

Above the intersection was a large screen, where it would often broadcast advertisements, yet in times of crisis, would act as a newscaster’s screen – such was the case now, as it flickered into life, displaying normal news setting. “We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for this urgent news bulletin,” the newscaster began, straightening the papers in front of her, clearly reading. However, nobody paid that any mind; they seemed transfixed with the images being displayed, all similar sights to what they were seeing, and were hanging onto every word. “At around 1300 hours, a large-scale calamity occurred. We have received reports that this is a vertical shock quake. As of yet there are no details, but massive casualties have been reported in the city.” She paused to sigh, and spoke again. “Once more, at around 1300-” Before the report could continue, the news flickered off, leaving a garishly bright white screen behind.

“Hey, why’d it get cut off? What happened?” Noya demanded, looking at the other two for answers. Hinata and Yachi shrugged, unsure themselves.

Already, anxiety had spread like wildfire, or like a contagious disease through the crowd of pedestrians below, and there were shouts of distress and fear and confusion.

“ _Dude, what’s the problem? Turn the news back on!_ ”

“ _Honestly, the media in this country can’t do anything right_!”

As if struck by a brainwave, Nishinoya began to fiddle on his phone, holding it up in the air, and then scowled at it, and brought it back to his chest, where he began to type furiously fast. “Dammit, no good. I ain’t getting service, and my TV app ain’t working either…”

“Same here,” Yachi held up her phone, a cute pink one with a chibi frog charm; on the screen was an unmissable notification announcing she was out of service. Just in case, Hinata took out his phone, but for the same result. With a sigh, he shoved it back into his pocket, but Yachi was still trying. “What do I do? I need to get in touch with my mom to let her know I’m okay…” Thinking, she danced off, away from the pair of them.

“Hey, Yachi!” Hinata called after her, but she didn’t appear to have heard him. A few moments she came back, shaking her head sadly.

“Public phones aren’t working either,” she informed them. “I asked a cab driver, and he said his radio was out, too.”

“That’s so weird!” Hinata grumbled, folding his arms.

“Do you think it’s a blackout? It’s hard to tell because it’s daytime, but…” Nishinoya suggested before returning to his phone.

“Maybe that’s why the TV stations out!” Hinata chipped in.

Ignoring him, Nishinoya piped up: “Hey, this is weird. There’s some weird app on my phone, and I can’t delete it or anything!” A quick check of their phones, Yachi and Hinata confirmed they also had it, confusion settling on them again. Slowly and uncertainly, Hinata pressed the help option on his own app, and lo and behold, Karasu popped up on his screen; why was he not surprised?

“Hello, Shouyou! How can I help you?!” Karasu sounded as chipper as always, and he slowly typed in the question: _what is this app?_ “Ooh, good question, good question! This app is a summoning app! Basically, it’s going to help you survive from now on, okay?!” Karasu paused, as if thinking – how was this app working when service and internet was down? “You’ll have to figure out how to use it on your own. Otherwise, we can’t assess your properly?”

“Who’s **we**?” Noya snorted. Dutifully, Hinata typed it in, symbol by symbol. _Who is we?_

“We’re your friends!” Karasu replied cheerfully. “Good luck, Shouyou, good luck!”

“Ask it what it summons,” Yachi urged.

_What do you summon?_

At the question, Karasu paused for a moment before answering. “We summon creatures from other worlds, Shouyou! You’ve probably read about them in stories and stuff, you know. But what you personally can summon depends on the person, and what they’re like on the inside! So if you’re all friendly, you’ll summon a nice one, and if you’re all nasty and horrible and mean, you’ll summon a horrible, nasty and mean demon! You don’t want one of those, though, so try your best to be super-duper nice, okay?”

“Creatures from other worlds? Demons?” Noya repeated with a cynical tone. “This is ridiculous, some jump-start hacker’s idea of a prank. Everyone knows demons and… mythological things don’t exist!”

Their conversation was interrupted by a booming voice, reticent of thunder rolling across the sky. “You three, may I speak to you for a moment?” Standing behind them was a man in a smart black jacket, an official-looking symbol Hinata didn’t recognize on his jacket. Though his expression was stern, his round brown eyes appeared genuine.

At the sound of his voice, Yachi jumped, and nodded quickly once she’d turned to face him. “Yes, yes, of course!” she squeaked, before hiding behind Hinata.

“You came up from the subway, didn’t you? What did you see down there?”

“Huh, what did we see?” Noya repeated the question, and creased his eyebrows, a thing he was wont to do when he was thinking. “Uh, well, the train crashed, and-”

“That much I know already. Wasn’t there something else?” Despite the trusting gleam in his eye, the man seemed to have placed a professional barrier around himself.

“Something else?” Noya squeaked, somewhat scared. “Was there meant to be?” Unspoken between them was the news of the summoning app installed on their phones by an unseen power. At his reply, the man sighed, and closed his eyes, pensive expression on his face.

“Let me change the subject, then,” his tone seemed a lot lighter now, but it fell away almost instantly. “Give me your phones.” Hinata’s hand was already in his pocket, ready to freely hand it over to the uniformed man, but Noya kicked him in the leg.

“Zip it, you idiot,” he whispered. “We shouldn’t get involved. Something’s off about him.” To the man, he gave him the biggest, goofiest grin he could manage under the circumstances. “Oh, look at the time!” he indicated to his phone. “We’ve really gotta be somewhere, so, uh, excuse us!” He grabbed Hinata and Yachi by the wrists and dragged them away, faking laughter until enough distance had been put between them and the strange man’s gaze. Once they were safely away, he let both of them go and sighed in relief.

“Man, who was that?” Hinata cast a glance over his shoulder, still feeling the man’s gaze.

“He was kind of scary!” Yachi breathed out, almost like she’d been holding her breath the entire while. “I wonder what his deal was…” she trailed off, and looked in the same direction as Hinata, deep in thought.

“I think he’s a good guy,” Hinata said finally.

“ _A good guy_?” Noya repeated, disbelieving. “Some strange dude we don’t know from Adam?” Hinata nodded, and he shook his head. “It’s good we got away, but man, what now?”

“I want to go back home,” Yachi’s voice sounded quiet and close to tears again. “I’m worried about my mom.”

“Yeah, good point,” Hinata fiddled with his hands. “I’m worried about my family too. Especially my younger sisters.”

“We should be okay, since our houses are in the same neighbourhood, Hinata,” Noya clapped his friend on the back. “Where do you live, Yachi-san?”

“In Ariake,” she admitted. “It’s a little far, so I can’t expect the two of you to take me all the way there…” she shifted her weight from one foot to the other; she did that when she watched their games, Hinata had come to notice, so it meant she was feeling anxious.

“We’ll see you home, then,” Hinata announced decidedly, folding his arms across his chest with a firm nod.

“But it’s so far! You must be worried about your families!”

“He’s right. It’s better if we go with you,” Noya told her.

“Um, okay... are you sure you wouldn’t mind?”

“We wouldn’t have offered else,” Noya said. “Ariake, huh? Probably need a bus or something, right?”

“Are they even running?” Yachi tilted her head. “If not, maybe it’s better to head to a park, or a shelter.”

“Let’s try our luck with those then!” Noya grinned, an easy-going one that seemed to ease Hinata’s nerves slightly; it was almost like times were normal again. Nothing could be further from the truth, and Hinata knew, in his heart of hearts, he was just denying everything that had happened so far. Yet doing that would not make it go away, as much as he wanted it to.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on a couple of projects and I decided to post this one first, even though I haven't got it all planned out as I have the others! I decided to not have ships in it as much as I did my previous fic, since I want this to be more kind of story-based and more character-based. Anyways, please tell me of any criticisms that you have, since I'm still relatively new to writing!


End file.
